Lingo / What is Ready to wear fashion

Ready-to-wear has rather different connotations in the spheres of fashion and classic clothing. In the fashion industry, designers produce ready-to-wear clothing intended to be worn without significant alteration, because it is by far the most economical, efficient, and profitable way to produce garments. They use standard patterns, factory equipment, and faster construction techniques to keep costs low, compared to a custom-sewn version of the same item.

The antithesis of ready-to-wear is different depending on whether it concerns women's or men's fashion. In women's fashion high end clothing made partly incorporating features requested by the client and to her exact measurements is called haute couture. In menswear, it is usually called bespoke. In menswear, one further distinguishes between made-to-measure (or 'semi-bespoke'), in which a standard pattern is adapted to the customer's measurements, and (full) bespoke, in which a new design is created from scratch for each customer.